From Ciudad del este in Paraguay we took a bus to Encarnacion. The bus was five hours long, there were like 40 degrees outside and we didn't have air conditioning!! At the end of the ride we didn't have any water left in our body...that's how much we were sweating.
We met two guys from Germany on the Terminal there. Alex and Enno had the same plans as we had, so we decided to just get a hostel together and go to the Trinidad ruins together the next day.
In the evening we met a nice paraguayan guy who offered to take us to the ruins, so we met him the next morning and went there.
The ruins are pretty old but still in good shape. We also took the oldest bus I have ever seen in my life. It looked and sounded like it would fall apart the very next minute.Haha.
The next day we took another bus to Paraguays capital Asuncion and arrived in our hostel in the night, after we walked around for an hour trying to find it :D
The next three days we stayed there and settled down a little...
I also finally found a bus back to Santiago :)
So on the 24th of January I arrived in Santiago after a nightbus to Cordoba in, where I spent the day doing some sightseeing, from there another nightbus to Mendoza and from there another one to Santiago.
I was glad to finally be back "home" and spent my final month there with doing another spanish course and lots of fun things with my friends!
That was the last post about Southamerica. I'm on my way to New Zealand now...at least in my blog! Actually, I am already in Melbourne in Sydney :D
Sorry about being so bad keeping you guys updated!
Montag, 2. April 2012
Mittwoch, 28. März 2012
Foz de Iguazu
We took a 27 hour bus to make our way from Rio de Janeiro to Foz de Iguazu , which is right on the border of Argentina and Paraguay. In that area you can see the point where the borders of three countries (Brazil, Argentina and Paraguay) get together and of course some of the biggest waterfalls on earth!!
The bus ride was a night mare…it took five hours more than we thought, because it stopped every half an hour, even though there was no one getting on and no one getting off. Pretty annoying, but we got there at the end ;) We took a 27 hour bus to make our way from Rio de Janeiro to Foz de Iguazu , which is right on the border of Argentina and Paraguay. In that area you can see the point where the borders of three countries
Since we had to cross the borders (we had booked a hostel on the Argentinean side, which was supposed to be cheaper and better), we arrived another three hours later in our hostel. On the way there I also realized that I had forgotten my i-Pod and my earphones in the bus from Rio to Iguazu. And because it was Friday the 13th everything was just annoying and bad…even the weather was rainy and cold!
But however, the next day the sun was shining and because I am that lucky, I even got my i-Pod back, when I asked the bus-company I took the day before :) I really didn’t think they would find it and hand it to me (instead of just keeping it), so I was in a really good mood that day.
The waterfalls were amazingly beautiful and stunning. They are just huuuuge!!
The bus ride was a night mare…it took five hours more than we thought, because it stopped every half an hour, even though there was no one getting on and no one getting off. Pretty annoying, but we got there at the end ;) We took a 27 hour bus to make our way from Rio de Janeiro to Foz de Iguazu , which is right on the border of Argentina and Paraguay. In that area you can see the point where the borders of three countries
Since we had to cross the borders (we had booked a hostel on the Argentinean side, which was supposed to be cheaper and better), we arrived another three hours later in our hostel. On the way there I also realized that I had forgotten my i-Pod and my earphones in the bus from Rio to Iguazu. And because it was Friday the 13th everything was just annoying and bad…even the weather was rainy and cold!
But however, the next day the sun was shining and because I am that lucky, I even got my i-Pod back, when I asked the bus-company I took the day before :) I really didn’t think they would find it and hand it to me (instead of just keeping it), so I was in a really good mood that day.
The waterfalls were amazingly beautiful and stunning. They are just huuuuge!!
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| three-country-point |
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| argentinien side :) |
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| Monkey on the walking path |
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| Argentinien side |
We stayed there four days and made our way to Paraguay from there, which is only two hours (with all the borders) away...
See ya,
Nina
Montag, 12. März 2012
from Sao Paulo to Rio de Janeiro...
A seven hour bus ride took us from Sao Paulo to Rio de Janeiro. We checked-in in our hostel at 11:30 pm and went straight to bed. We spent the next two days, walking around Rio, doing some sightseeing and relaxing on the beach :) Rio is just beautiful and the people too...its not like there are just models running around, they are just beautiful from the inside and and sooo happy! I really admire their culture of happiness!
Now some pictures:
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| Rio de Janeiro on a cloudy day |
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| M&N in Rio |
Sorry I don´t have much time left, uploading pictures always takes its time...
My next post is about the waterfalls in Iguazu ;)
Bye bye, Nina
Sonntag, 11. März 2012
visiting a friend in Cianorte...
A really long bus trip, the whole day and the night, took us from Porto Alegre to Curitiba and from there to Cianorte, where we arrived at 6 am. Since Martha and me arrived one day earlier than we had planed with our friend, Aline, before, and the communication wasn't perfect, we were as always stranded at the bus terminal :D We waited for two hours and started to look for an internet-café. Well, Cianorte is a relatively small city and in the south-american culture, cafés or internet-cafés won't open until 10 am!! We walked around for 1 1/2 hours asking people, in spanish (we tried to make it sound like portugese- which is really not too diferent from spanish), for internet-cafés or just WiFi...but they wouldn't get what we were trying to say :D First it was pretty frustrating but after a while it got kinda funny!! The weird thing is, that the word "internet" exists in portugese and is pronounced almost the same as they say it in english, german etc. Maybe they were scared of us strangers and stressed out as soon as they heard a different accent. Jajaja
In the end we found a café with WiFi and got help from the lady that owned it. She was so adorable...she even offered us to stay with her neighboor, have a shower and take a rest :) soo sweet!
Our friend picked us up half an hour later and went with us to her grandmas house, where we freshened up and had lunch. We met Aline in Santiago, in our spanish school "Tandem" and she invited us to visit her one day...so we took advantage of that right away :-P
Her parents and her live on the "campo", have cows, chickens etc. It is one of my favorite places in the world to relax and have some good quiet days without connection to the world outside. But see it yourself:
We spent four really relaxing but fun days with Aline. On a Saturday we took a night-bus to São Paulo, where we had friends we could stay with.
São Paulo is with ca. 18 million habitants one of the biggest cities in the world! And it's true...IT IS freakin' HUGE!! I think as we got into the city, we still drove more than an hour to get to one of the bus terminals. After taking the metro for another half hour, we got to the station where our friends mum was waiting for us.
She was so lovely. She took so good care of us, showed us the city (at least a part of it), cooked the best brasilian food ...
In the three days we had in São Paulo we saw a lot of the city, had some good time with the family of our friend and went to the MASP (Museum of Arts de São Paulo). They had paintings of Picasso, Matisse, Van Gogh, Rembrandt etc. there...really interesting, since I had all those painters in my last years of school and could totally remember what I had learned about them :D
That was all for now, gotta go...
Sorry for being so bad updating you guys!
Greetings, saludos, Grüße
Nina
In the end we found a café with WiFi and got help from the lady that owned it. She was so adorable...she even offered us to stay with her neighboor, have a shower and take a rest :) soo sweet!
Our friend picked us up half an hour later and went with us to her grandmas house, where we freshened up and had lunch. We met Aline in Santiago, in our spanish school "Tandem" and she invited us to visit her one day...so we took advantage of that right away :-P
Her parents and her live on the "campo", have cows, chickens etc. It is one of my favorite places in the world to relax and have some good quiet days without connection to the world outside. But see it yourself:
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| Litschis just hanging around there |
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| Muhmuhs |
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| Coconut-tree |
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| my friend, Aline |
We spent four really relaxing but fun days with Aline. On a Saturday we took a night-bus to São Paulo, where we had friends we could stay with.
São Paulo is with ca. 18 million habitants one of the biggest cities in the world! And it's true...IT IS freakin' HUGE!! I think as we got into the city, we still drove more than an hour to get to one of the bus terminals. After taking the metro for another half hour, we got to the station where our friends mum was waiting for us.
She was so lovely. She took so good care of us, showed us the city (at least a part of it), cooked the best brasilian food ...
In the three days we had in São Paulo we saw a lot of the city, had some good time with the family of our friend and went to the MASP (Museum of Arts de São Paulo). They had paintings of Picasso, Matisse, Van Gogh, Rembrandt etc. there...really interesting, since I had all those painters in my last years of school and could totally remember what I had learned about them :D
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| Sao Paulo center |
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That was all for now, gotta go...
Sorry for being so bad updating you guys!
Greetings, saludos, Grüße
Nina
Mittwoch, 15. Februar 2012
We stayed with Ronaldo, who stayed in Marthas house in the Netherlands in 2011. He lives in Gravatai, which is about half an hour from Porto Alegre. We slept in the house of his girlfriends family and were treated like princesses. Her mum made awesome food, we weren´t allowed to help with anything and the first evening Ronaldo, Leticia (his girlfriend) and some of their friends took us to this "Christmas "- city, which is a very popular place to go to in the south of Brasil. It was already way after Christmas but for the first time this Christmas feeling you normally have ( in Germany) came up. The whole city was lightened up with christmas decoration, you could hear christmas music out of every store and there was even a choir singing, of course, christmas songs.
One new experience Martha and me had, was eating chicken heart!! If think about it know, I think its really gross...but in reality it tasted just like some kind of meat ;) I wouldn´t eat it again though. Jajaja
New Years Eve we were invited to celebrate with friends of Ronaldo and Leticia. In general we had fun and enjoyed celebrating the New Year in Brasil with these lovely people, but I´m totally ready to celebrate 2013 with my family and friends ;)
The brasilians do have some weird but interesting New Years traditions though. They say you should eat lots of lentil soup, seven grapes and jump over seven waves to be lucky and get rich that year. Of course I did all three things...lets see how it works out. Logically I will get home with no money left but you never know what happens! HAHA
The day after New Years, Ronaldo and Leticia showed us the center of Porto Alegre. As you can see on the picture its really green. In times it rains a lot but that didn´t bother us. No big news from two girls coming from the Netherlands and Germany...
After leaving Gravatai, we went north and stoped in Florianapolis for one day. It´s know for having some of the most beautiful beaches in Brasil, which really means something!!! Maybe you can´t tell from the picture but it really was one of the most beautiful beaches we had been to in Brasil.
Hasta el proximo "post"
Un abrazo
Montag, 13. Februar 2012
and I move on...
Very short post about our way from BsAs to Porto Alegre (Brasil):
We took a "Buquebus", thats the name of the ferry that crosses the river, to Colonia del Sacramento in Uruguay. We got there in the afternoon and had the whole day to see the city and chill at the beach, cause our couchsurfer had to work until 8pm...
In the end we missed the last bus to his house because we forgot about the time difference...stupid, I know :D From that moment everything totally got out of control and we ended up taking the last bus to Montevideo and sleep there in the terminal! At least we were lucky that the terminal didn't close over night^^
A little tired and sore from sleeping or trying to sleep on the seats in the terminal, we headed to the beach of Montevideo. A really nice and quiet beach...at least in the morning ;)
In the afternoon we walked through the city and had a cafe with a german tourist we met. He identified us as germans when he saw my "Deuter"-backpack :D
In the evening we had bought a bus ticket over night to Porto Alegre, where one of Marthas friends lived, with which we wanted to stay for a few days.
Yap, thats how we got there!
Hasta luego
We took a "Buquebus", thats the name of the ferry that crosses the river, to Colonia del Sacramento in Uruguay. We got there in the afternoon and had the whole day to see the city and chill at the beach, cause our couchsurfer had to work until 8pm...
In the end we missed the last bus to his house because we forgot about the time difference...stupid, I know :D From that moment everything totally got out of control and we ended up taking the last bus to Montevideo and sleep there in the terminal! At least we were lucky that the terminal didn't close over night^^
A little tired and sore from sleeping or trying to sleep on the seats in the terminal, we headed to the beach of Montevideo. A really nice and quiet beach...at least in the morning ;)
In the afternoon we walked through the city and had a cafe with a german tourist we met. He identified us as germans when he saw my "Deuter"-backpack :D
In the evening we had bought a bus ticket over night to Porto Alegre, where one of Marthas friends lived, with which we wanted to stay for a few days.
Yap, thats how we got there!
Hasta luego
Dienstag, 31. Januar 2012
Pictures
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| Roof patio of our hostel |
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| una ciudad muy linda^^ |
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| Wir sind die coolsten, sind die coolsten, wenn wir durch die City cruisen ;) |
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| barrio "La Boca" en BsAs - is famous for its very colorful houses |
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| "La Bomba" - awesome every-week-drum-show |
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| Theater "Colon" |
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| Colonia in Uruguay |
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| Montevideo - really nice city with nice beaches ;) |
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